Stuteville dropped 37 points and 21 rebounds in a win against the Lakers earlier
The Memphis Grizzlies were scouting some players during free agency a couple of seasons ago. We were specifically looking for players with high ability to finish well inside. One name popped up out of nowhere – Eric Stuteville. We heard of this player before through the draft but never paid much attention. We even labelled him as a D-Leaguer and did not care much about him being picked up by rival San Antonio in the 2nd round of the 2029 CSL draft.
With the Spurs, Eric made cameo appearances in 56 games over 3 seasons showing some skills as a really aggressive but wildly inefficient scorer shooting 38% from the field. The Spurs were not impressed and he was cut. He reappeared in D-League and erupted for 25 ppg averaging a point per minute. Even with lesser competition, he shot only 43% and failed to impress any GMs… or so it seemed.
In the background, we were impressed. We were looking at his game and he shot quite a lot of threes and mid-range jump shots. We were certain that he will improve in our system and a bit of coaching. We signed Eric to a minimum deal but, at the time, did not have a lot of opportunity to experiment with him. He was ultimately shipped to Houston as part of the Varnado/Gates/Knight deal.
Once again, he was back to D-League where he managed 26 points in 27 minutes per game. We were watching carefully.
As luck would have it, Memphis legend Bruno Fernando decided to join a new team and we now had plenty of opportunity to work with Eric.
With Evan Mobley on the injured list, ‘’the Stut’’ responded. After a few weeks of getting into it, he erupted for 6 consecutive 20+ point games including a 37 point, 21 rebound monster against the Lakers. We were pleasantly surprised as he was never known as a strong rebounder. We were also impressed by his ability to block shots as he has multiple 4+ block games on the season.
Eric is a uber aggressive scorer who gets the ball a lot from our guards and knows what to do with it in the Post. He is also really good at getting to the line, though struggles mightily at only 46%.
Overall, he has already made his presence felt at 18 ppg and we feel he added a layer of toughness that we needed with Bruno’s departure. While Eric will never be the defensive presence, we have to say that offensively, he is really taking it to the next level with us.
